This blog is for discussion of everything judicial: nominees, judges, the confirmation process, judicial philosophy, court decisions, constitutional issues, judicial activism. The views expressed here are those of the individual bloggers and do not necessarily represent the views of the Committee for Justice.

April 21, 2009

White House Refuses to Accept Inter-Agency Memo Declaring Detainess Too Dangerous to Release in U.S.

"Reviewing the Uighurs detention, the inter-agency panel found that they weren’t the ignorant, innocent goatherds the White House believed them to be. The committee determined they were too dangerous to release because they were members of the ETIM terrorist group, the “East Turkistan Islamic Movement,” and because their presence at the al-Queda training camp was no accident. There is now no ETIM terrorist cell in the United States: there will be one if these Uighurs are released into the United States.

According to Defense Department sources, the White House legal office has told the inter-agency review group to re-do their findings to come up with the opposite answer." (emphasis added)"

This type of opinion shopping makes us less safe. Instead of properly weighing national security concerns, the White House seems intent on enacting policies that, despite their constitutionality or harm, allow them to score political points.

Paul Mirengoff asks some questions that logically flow from the White House's rejection of the Uighur memo.

Would anyone be surprised if, indeed, the Obama administration is overruling the intelligence community in order to implement preconceived policy preferences? Would anyone be surprised if those policy preferences include erring on the side of aiding suspected terrorists (to "repair our image," of course) rather than protecting the United States?

Between the release of the "torture memos" and the refusal of the Uighur findings, no one should be surprised any longer.